Rabat – The women’s basketball team of Meknes’ Sports Club Association announced on Saturday evening that it would not be participating in the Arab Clubs Championship for Women planned to be held in Tunisia next month.
“The Executive Board of the Meknes Basketball Sports Club has decided to cancel its participation in the Arab Championship for Women’s Clubs organized in the city of Nabeul in Tunisia from the 20th to 28 September 2022,” reads an announcement on the club’s official Facebook page.
While the club did not specify a reason for the withdrawal, the announcement times up with diplomatic tensions between Morocco and Tunisia over the Tunisian president’s hosting of the head of the separatist Polisario Front.
In addition to Meknes’ basketball team, Morocco’s Royal Karate Federation canceled its participation in a regional tournament taking place in Tunisia from September 7-11.
On Friday, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied received the head of Polisario, Brahim Ghali, igniting diplomatic tensions with Morocco. The kingdom recalled its ambassador to Tunis immediately, and the Tunisian government responded in kind.
President Saied’s invitation to and hosting of Ghali came ahead of the the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8), which Tunis organized this Saturday and Sunday.
Morocco boycotted the conference, and many countries, including co-organizer Japan have spoken out against the invitation of the separatist Polisario Front.
President Saied’s movie was also met with widespread criticism from Tunisian political parties and organizations.
Among the most prominent and trenchant critics of the move was Moncef Marzouki, the former president of Tunisia, who said the current government has dangerously deviated from Tunisia’s traditional policy of constructive and positive neutrality on the Western Sahara dispute.
President Saied’s hosting of the Polisario chief is politically unsound and “should be condemned by all standards,” Marzouki said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
